11/01/2018 – Ephemeris – November preview

Ephemeris for Thursday, November 1st. The Sun will rise at 8:20. It’ll be up for 10 hours and 10 minutes, setting at 6:31. The Moon, 1 day past last quarter, will rise at 2:14 tomorrow morning.

Let’s look ahead at the skies for the month of November. The Sun is still moving south rapidly. Daylight hours in the Interlochen/Traverse City area and will drop from 10 hours and 10 minutes today to 9 hours 5 minutes on the 30th. The altitude, or angle, of the Sun above the southern horizon at local noon will be at 30 degrees today and will descend to 23 and a half degrees on the 30th. The altitude of the Sun in the Straits area will be a degree lower. Local noon, this month, will be about 12:30 p.m. once we’re on standard time. The Leonid meteor shower will reach multiple peaks from the 16th through the 21st and is expected to be lackluster and may only produce 10 to 15 meteors per hour. But the Leonids can be surprising.

The times given are for the Traverse City/Interlochen area of Michigan. They may be different for your location.

Addendum

November Evening Star Chart

Star Chart for November 2018 (9 p.m. EST November 15, 2018). Created using my LookingUp program. Click on image to enlarge.

The planets and stars are plotted for the 15th at 9 p.m. EST in the evening and 6 a.m. for the morning chart. These are the chart times. Note that Traverse City is located approximately 45 minutes behind our time meridian. (An hour 45 minutes behind our daylight saving time meridian during EDT). To duplicate the star positions on a planisphere you may have to set it to 1 hour 45 minutes earlier than the current time.

Note the chart times of 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. are for the 15th. For each week before the 15th add ½ hour (28 minutes if you’re picky). For each week after the 15th subtract ½ hour. The planet positions are updated each Wednesday on this blog. For planet positions on dates other than the 15th, check the Wednesday planet posts on this blog.

November Morning Star Chart

Star Chart for November moprnings 2018 (6 a.m. EST November 15, 2018). Created using my LookingUp program. Click on image to enlarge. The original morning chart uploaded November 1st was outdated. This corrected chart was uploaded November 6th.

For a list of constellation names to go with the abbreviations click here.

Pointer stars at the front of the bowl of the Big Dipper point to Polaris the North Star.

Follow the arc of the handle of the Big Dipper to the star Arcturus

The Summer Triangle is in red.

TauR on the evening star chart can be used as the radiant for the North and South Taurid meteor showers.

LeoR on the morning star chart is the radiant of the Leonid meteor shower which peaks between the 16th to 21st.